SCENE I. ACT I. "It hath in solemn synods been decreed, To quit the penalty, and to ransom him.” THE offence which Egeon had committed, and the penalty which he had incurred, are pointed out with a minuteness, by which the poet doubtless intended to convey his sense of In the gross injustice of such enactments. 'The Taming of the Shrew,' written most probably about the same period as 'The Comedy of Errors,' the jealousies of commercial states, exhibiting themselves in violent decrees and impracticable regulations, are also depicted by the same powerful hand : "Tra. What countryman, I pray? Ped. Of Mantua. Tra. Of Mantua, sir ?-marry, God forbid! And come to Padua, careless of your life? Ped. My life, sir? how, I pray? for that goes hard. Tra. "T is death for any one in Mantua To come to Padua; know you not the cause? Your ships are staid at Venice; and the duke For private quarrel 'twixt your duke and him, Hath publish'd and proclaim'd it openly." At the commencement of the reign of Eliza beth, the just principles of foreign commerce were asserted in a very remarkable manner in the preamble to a statute (1 Eliz. c. 13): "Other foreign princes, finding themselves aggrieved with the said several acts"-(statutes prohibit ing the export or import of merchandise by English subjects in any but English ships) have made like penal laws against such as should ship out of their countries in any other vessels than of their several countries and dominions; by reason whereof there hath not only grown great displeasure between the foreigu princes and the kings of this realm, but also the merchants have been sore grieved and endamaged." The inevitable consequences of commercial jealousies between rival states-the retaliations that invariably attend these narrow and malignant politics," as Hume forcibly expresses it are here clearly set forth. But in five or six years afterwards we had acts "for setting her Majesty's people on work," forbidding the importation of foreign wares ready wrought, "to the intent that her Highness's subjects might be employed in making thereof." These laws were directed against the productions of the Netherlands; and they were immediately followed by counter-proclamations, forbidding the carrying into England of any matter or thing out of which the same wares might be made; and prohibiting the importation in the Low Countries of all English manufactures, under pain of confiscation. Under these laws, the English merchants were driven from town to town-from Antwerp to Embden, from Embden to Hamburgh; their ships seized, their goods confiscated. Retaliation of course followed, with all the complicated injuries of violence begetting violence. The instinctive wisdom of our poet must have seen the folly and wickedness of such proceedings; and we believe that these passages are intended to mark his sense of them. The same brute force, which would confiscate the goods and burn the ships of the merchant, would put the merchant himself to death, under another state of society. He has stigmatised the principle of commercial jealousy by carrying out its consequences under an unconstrained despotism. ACT II. 2 SCENE II.—" Thou art an elm, my husband, I, a vine." WHEN Milton uses this classical image, in 'Paradise Lost,' "They led the vine To wed the elm; she, spous'd, about him twines the annotators of our great epic poet naturally give us the parallel passages in Catullus, in Ovid, in Virgil, in Horace. Shakspere unquestionably had the image from the same sources. Farmer does not notice this passage; but had he done so he would, of course, have shown that there were translations of The Georgics' and 'The Metamorphoses' when this play was written. It appears to us that this line of Shakspere is neither a translation nor an imitation of any of the well-known classical passages; but a transfusion of the spirit of the ancient poets by one who was familiar with them. 3 SCENE II.-" This is the fairy land." In the first act we have the following description of the unlawful arts of Ephesus: "They say this town is full of cozenage; 4 As, nimble jugglers that deceive the eye, ACT * SCENE II.-" I could find out countries in her." SHAKSPERE most probably had the idea from Rabelais, in the passage where Friar John maps out the head and chin of Panurge (L. 3. c. 28). "Ta barbe par les distinctions du gris, du blanc, du tanné, et du noir, me semble une mappemonde. Regarde ici. Voila Asie. Ici sont Tigris et Euphrates. Voila Africque. Ici est la montaigne de la Lune. Veois-tu les palus du Nil? Deça est Europe. Veois-tu Theleme? Ce touppet ici tout blanc, sont les monts Hyperborées." S SCENE II.-" Where Scotland?” In the Merchant of Venice,' where Portia describes her suitors to Nerissa, we have an allusion, sarcastic although playful,-to the ancient contests of Scotland with England, and of the support which France generally rendered to the weaker side: Disguised cheaters, prating mountebanks, It was observed by Capell that "the character given of Ephesus in this place is the very same that it had with the ancients, which may pass for some note of the poet's learning." It was scarcely necessary, however, for Shakspere to search for this ancient character of Ephesus in more recondite sources than the most interesting narrative of St. Paul's visit to the city, given in the 19th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. In the 13th verse we find mention of "certain of the vagabond Jews, exorcists;" and in the 19th verse we are told that " many of them also which used curious arts brought their books together, and burned them before all men." The ancient proverbial term, Ephesian Letters, was used to express every kind of charm or spell. 111. that the more offensive allusion to the “barrenness" of Scotland, in the passage before us being retained in the original folio edition, is a proof that the Comedy of Errors' was not revived after the accession of the Scottish monarch to the English throne. SCENE II.-" Making war against her heir.” It seems to be pretty generally agreed that this passage is an allusion to the war of the League. In the first folio we have the spelling heire, although in the second folio it was changed to haire. Upon the assassination of Henry III., in August, 1589, the great contest commenced between his heir, Henry of Navarre, and the Leaguers, who opposed his succession. In 1591 Elizabeth sent an armed force to the assistance of Henry. If the supposition that this allusion was meant by Shakspere be correct, the date of the play is pretty exactly deter "Ner. What think you of the Scottish lord, his neigh- mined; for the war of the League was in effect bour? Por. That he hath a neighbourly charity in him, for he borrowed a box of the ear of the Englishman, and swore he would pay him again, when he was able; I think the Frenchman became his surety, and sealed under for another." The word Scottish is found in the original quarto of this play, but in the folio of 1623 it is changed to other. Malone considers that the 'Merchant of Venice' being performed in the time of James, the allusion to Scotland was suppressed by the Master of the Revels; but concluded by Henry's renunciation of the Protestant faith in 1593. 7 SCENE II.-" Where America, the Indies?" This is certainly one of the boldest anachronisms in Shakspere; for, although the period of the action of the Comedy of Errors' may include a range of four or five centuries, it must certainly be placed before the occupation of Ephesus by the Mohammedans, and therefore some centuries before the discovery of America. ACT IV. SCENE II.-" Far from her nest, the lapwing is by no means clear, from the passage before us, that the bailiff did not even wear a sort of cries, away." THIS image was a favourite one with the Elizabethan writers. In Lily's ' Campaspe,' 1584, we have, "You resemble the lapwing, who crieth most where her nest is not." Greene and Nash also have the same allusion, which Shakspere repeats in 'Measure for Measure:' "With maids to seem the lapwing, and to jest, Tongue far from heart." "Far from her nest the lapwing cries."] SCENE II.-" A fellow all in buff.” The Prince asks Falstaff, "Is not a buff jerkin a most sweet robe of durance?" The buff jerkin, according to Dromio's definition, is "an everlasting garment," worn by "a shoulderclapper." The commentators have thrown away much research upon these passages. Steevens maintains that everlasting and durance were technical names for very strong and durable cloth; but there can be no doubt, we think, that the occupation of the bailiff being somewhat dangerous, in times when men were ready to resist the execution of the law with the sword and rapier, he was clothed with the oxskin, the buff, which in warfare subsequently took the place of the heavier coat of mail. It armour: "One whose hard heart is button'd up with steel." 10 SCENE II.-"A hound that runs counter, and yet draws dry-foot well." The hound that runs counter runs upon a false course; but the hound that draws dry-foot well, follows the game by the scent of the foot, as the blood-hound is said to do. The bailiff's dog-like attributes were not inconsistent; for he was a serjeant of the counter prison, and followed his game as Brainworm describes in 'Every Man in his Humour: "Well, the truth is, my old master intends to follow my young master, dry-foot, over Moorfields to London this morning." 11 SCENE II." One that, before the judgment, carries poor souls to hell." The arrest "before judgment" is that upon mesne-process, and Shakspere is here employing his legal knowledge. It appears that Hell was the name of a place of confinement under the Exchequer Chamber for the debtors of the Crown. It is described by that name in the Journals of the House of Commons on the occasion of the coronation of William and Mary. 12 SCENE IV.-"Here's that, I warrant you, will pay them all." Dr. Gray has the following note on this passage: "If the honest countryman in the Isle of Axholm in Lincolnshire, where they grow little else but hemp, had been acquainted with Shakspere's Works, I should have imagined that he borrowed his jest from hence. At the beginning of the rebellion in 1641, a party of the parliament soldiers, seeing a man sowing somewhat, asked him what it was he was sowing, for they hoped to reap his crop, I am sowing of hemp, gentlemen,' (says he,) and I hope I have enough for you all." " ENGRAVINGS. THE period of the action in this comedy being so necessarily undefined, we have preferred to select our Pictorial Illustrations from the most authentic representations of the existing remains of ancient Ephesus, and from views of the present state of that celebrated city, of Corinth, and of Syracuse. It may be convenient here to furnish a brief explanation of these Illustrations. pillars of the former sort in the mosque of St. John, at the village of Aiasalouck. I saw also a fine entablature; and on one of the columns in the mosque there is a most beautiful composite capital, which, without doubt, belonged to it. There are great remains of the pillars of the temple, which were built of large hewn stone, and probably cased with marble; but, from what I saw of one part, I had reason to The Temple of Diana is thus described by conclude that arches of brick were turned on Pococke: "The Temple of Diana is situated towards the south-west corner of the plain, having a lake on the west side, now become a morass, extending westward to the Cayster. This building and the courts about it were encompassed every way with a strong wall, that to the west of the lake and to the north was likewise the wall of the city; there is a double wall to the south. Within these walls were four courts: that is, one on every side of the temple, and on each side of the court to the west there was a large open portico, or colonnade, extending to the lake, on which arches of bricks were turned for a covering. The front of the temple was to the east. The temple was built on arches, to which there is a descent. I went a great way in, till I was stopped either by earth thrown down, or by the water. They consist of several narrow arches, one within another. It is probable they extended to the porticoes on each side of the western court, and served for foundations to those pillars. This being a morassy ground, made the expense of such a foundation so necessary; on which, it is said, as much was bestowed as on the fabric above ground. It is probable, also, that the shores [sewers] of the city passed this way into the lake. great number of pipes made of earthenware in these passages; but it may be questioned whether they were to convey the filth of the city under these passages, or the water from the lake to the basin which was to the east of the temple, or to any other part of the city. In the front of the temple there seems to have been a grand portico. Before this part there lay three pieces of red granite pillars, each being about fifteen feet long, and one of gray broken into two pieces; they were all three feet and a half in diameter. There are four I saw a them, and that the whole temple, as well as these pillars, was incrusted with rich marbles. On the stonework of the middle grand apartment there are a great number of small holes, as if designed in order to fix the marble casing. It is probable that the statue of the great goddess Diana of the Ephesians was either in the grand middle compartment or opposite to it." The engraving of the Temple restored is principally founded upon the descriptions of Pococke, who has given an imaginary groundplan. The 'Antiquities of Ionia,' published by the Dilettanti Society, and the Voyage Pittoresque de la Grèce,' of M. Choiseul Gouffier, have furnished the authorities for the other engravings of Ephesian remains. Of the modern population of Ephesus the following striking description was furnished by Chandler sixty years ago. The place is now far more desolate and wretched : "The Ephesians are now a few Greek peasants, living in extreme wretchedness, dependence, and insensibility; the representatives of an illustrious people, and inhabiting the wreck of their greatness; some, the substructions of the glorious edifices which they raised; some, beneath the vaults of the Stadium, once the crowded scene of their diversions; and some, by the abrupt precipices in the sepulchres which received their ashes. We employed a couple of them to pile stones, to serve instead of a ladder at the arch of the Stadium, and to clear a pedestal of the portico by the theatre from rubbish. We had occasion for another to dig at the Corinthian temple; and, sending to the Stadium, the whole tribe, ten or twelve, followed; one playing all the time on a rude lyre, and at times striking the sounding-board with the fingers of his left hand in concert with the strings. One of them had on a pair of sandals of goat-skin, laced with thongs, and not uncommon. After gratifying their curiosity, they returned back as they came, with their musician in front. Such are the present citizens of Ephesus, and such is the condition to which that renowned city has been gradually reduced. It was a ruinous place when the Emperor Justinian filled Constantinople with its statues, and raised the church of St. Sophia on its columns. Since then it has been almost quite exhausted. A herd of goats was driven to it for shelter from the sun at noon; and a noisy flight of crows from its marble quarries seemed to insult its silence. We heard the partridge call in the area of the theatre and of the Stadium. The glorious pomp of its heathen worship is no longer remembered; and Christianity, which was here nursed by apostles, and fostered by general councils, until it increased to fulness of stature, barely lingers on in an existence hardly visible." |